Exception during results interpretation: Can't interpret results without query metadata including kind. Will show raw results instead.

[lcwj3]

Describe the bug
It seems this error is about the presentation of output. This error happens after I relaunch vscode and run my previous ql code on previous database, and it didn't derive this exception before.
Here is the full log.

Resolving library paths using CodeQL CLI: resolve library-path -v --log-to-stderr --format json --query /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph/javascript/ql/examples/snippets/retrieve_export_properties.ql --additional-packs /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph...
CLI command succeeded.
[2021-03-21 22:37:52] [DETAILS] resolve library-path> Resolving query at normalized path /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph/javascript/ql/examples/snippets/retrieve_export_properties.ql.
[2021-03-21 22:37:52] [DETAILS] resolve library-path> Found enclosing pack 'codeql-javascript-examples' at /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph/javascript/ql/examples.
[2021-03-21 22:37:52] [DETAILS] resolve library-path> Adding compilation cache at /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph/javascript/ql/examples/.cache.
[2021-03-21 22:37:52] [DETAILS] resolve library-path> Resolving library dependencies from /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph/javascript/ql/examples/qlpack.yml.
[2021-03-21 22:37:52] [DETAILS] resolve library-path> QL pack dependencies for /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph/javascript/ql/examples resolved OK.
[2021-03-21 22:37:52] [DETAILS] resolve library-path> Found dbscheme through QL packs: /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph/javascript/ql/src/semmlecode.javascript.dbscheme.

Resolving query metadata using CodeQL CLI: resolve metadata -v --log-to-stderr --format json /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph/javascript/ql/examples/snippets/retrieve_export_properties.ql...
CLI command succeeded.

Resolving database upgrade scripts using CodeQL CLI: resolve upgrades -v --log-to-stderr --format json --additional-packs /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph --dbscheme /home/chengwei/codes/test_cg/semver-7.3.4/package/semver-db/db-javascript/semmlecode.javascript.dbscheme --target-dbscheme /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph/javascript/ql/src/semmlecode.javascript.dbscheme --allow-downgrades...
CLI command succeeded.
[2021-03-21 22:37:52] [DETAILS] resolve upgrades> Searching for upgrades that apply to 930898a4fe07cb48de46800904922ca118b31e50.
[2021-03-21 22:37:52] [DETAILS] resolve upgrades> Will look for upgrades in /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph/python/upgrades
[2021-03-21 22:37:52] [DETAILS] resolve upgrades> Will look for upgrades in /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph/javascript/upgrades
[2021-03-21 22:37:52] [DETAILS] resolve upgrades> Will look for upgrades in /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph/csharp/upgrades
[2021-03-21 22:37:52] [DETAILS] resolve upgrades> Will look for upgrades in /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph/cpp/upgrades
[2021-03-21 22:37:52] [DETAILS] resolve upgrades> Will look for upgrades in /home/chengwei/codes/codeql_call_graph/java/upgrades
[2021-03-21 22:37:52] [DETAILS] resolve upgrades> Will look for upgrades in /home/chengwei/snap/codeql-linux64/codeql/legacy-upgrades/upgrades

Exception during results interpretation: Can't interpret results without query metadata including kind. Will show raw results instead.
Reading bqrs header using CodeQL CLI: bqrs info -v --log-to-stderr --format json --paginate-rows 200 /tmp/queries_-5951-EMr1B89gnxwd/results22.bqrs...
CLI command succeeded.

Reading bqrs data using CodeQL CLI: bqrs decode -v --log-to-stderr --format json --entities=url,string --result-set #select --rows 200 --start-at 78 /tmp/queries_-5951-EMr1B89gnxwd/results22.bqrs...
CLI command succeeded.

Expected behavior
No such error and the output presents well.

Additional context
my codeql cli is v2.4.6, and codeql extension is v1.4.4, ubuntu 18.04

[aeisenberg]

Does your query have correct metadata on it, specifically the @kind field? In v2.4.4 of the extension, we are being more explicit when there is incomplete or missing query metadata. In this case, it looks like, there is no @kind and therefore you will only be able to see the raw results. You will not be able to see path or alert results. If you don't need this, then you can ignore the problem.

[aeisenberg]

It's possible we want to convert this error to a warning.

[lcwj3]

Does your query have correct metadata on it, specifically the @kind field? In v2.4.4 of the extension, we are being more explicit when there is incomplete or missing query metadata. In this case, it looks like, there is no @kind and therefore you will only be able to see the raw results. You will not be able to see path or alert results. If you don't need this, then you can ignore the problem.

Thanks for your kind and fast reply! I think the metadata missmatch should be the reason. I started my project in the project of https://github.com/github/codeql directly, so the schema I use could be outdated, do you have any suggestion on this, because I can not always change the scaffold of my project. Thanks again!

[aeisenberg]

Can you paste your query here (or at least the metadata portion of it)? It's likely that something is missing.

[lcwj3]

Can you paste your query here (or at least the metadata portion of it)? It's likely that something is missing.

My project is forked from this commit, https://github.com/github/codeql/tree/d3d56fb0af7912f2f1b3de8844db4656326e10be, and what I have done is simply adding my own queries in this path /javascript/ql/examples/snippets/, and this error still happens even I created a new ql file such as

import javascript

from DataFlow::ClassNode c
select c  

This happens when I create my database via codeql cli v2.4.6, and I have also tried to downgrade it to v2.4.4 and configure the codeql extension cli to the same one, this error still exists.

[aeisenberg]

The error message is coming from this PR #792. Nothing internal has changed. The only difference is how we are reporting a situation that is most likely an error.

Generally, you want to add some metadata describing the kind of query you are writing. The most common ones are:

/**
 * @kind problem
 */

or

/**
 * @kind path-problem
 */

For simple queries and exploration, you probably don't need any metadata. We may want to consider hiding this warning in some situations.

[edoardopirovano]

A thought - perhaps we want to add a @kind snippet to indicate the case of files not containing full queries but just bits of QL we want to return raw results for.

[aeisenberg]

It is reasonable to run a query that does not have metadata. We shouldn't be showing a popup for that. Adding a snippet kind would not solve the problem since users would still need to add metadata manually. There's a simpler solution. I'll put up a quick PR.